Friday, May 3, 2013

Visitation Rights

Every once in a while, I share photos of my husband's daughter. The reason it is rare: we don't have very many photos of her. Elmo gets to visit her for maybe 2 hours once per week, in a grocery store. This is all the time that Sasha gets to spend with her sister, too. They're very close in age, so they usually get along quite well. His daughter has seen Spencer... once? twice? ever. We joke about loading up the entire family to go to Walmart Visitation.

Thursdays are visitation days. Sasha is quite smitten with her half-sister and misses her between visits. (Yes, they are in a Walmart.)

Anyway, "Baby Mama" seems to think this is fair. Meanwhile, he is kept in the dark about a lot of things... things that, by law, he has a right to know. He once got a text message that his daughter was in the ER, but then he couldn't get an answer about which one or why.

I could go on and on, truly I could. But let me try to get to my point. We had plans to use a large chunk ($1,500) of this year's tax return to retain a lawyer. Then the state took $5,000 of his tax return and gave it to her (eventually... I think she is still waiting due to an audit). We've had a couple weeks of visitation cancellations, but he actually got to take Sasha to see her sister yesterday. Elmo is a good daddy and deserves more time with his daughter. He deserves to get that time without being chaperoned by an ex-girlfriend and without the aid of a shopping cart.

Visitation Day & Sasha got to go!

We've been pushed and pushed and pushed and I hate to see him have to wait until next tax season. I created a Fundly Campaign to get Elmo his Visitation Rights. I'm sorry that some of the info there is recap from here, but I'm hoping we can raise enough money to retain the attorney in time for Father's Day. How wonderful would that be? What better gift? I did ask his permission before setting up the campaign. Six months ago, he didn't even want an attorney. He didn't want to confront her or rock the boat, he just wants to be a part of his daughter's life. Then she backed out of bringing his daughter over for Christmas. That was the last straw for him.

Sasha & sister Samantha bonding. Again.
Back then they only saw each other at Giftmas.

Elmo's legal rights in our state are not being met. He is going to need a court order to get them. If you can spare even a few dollars toward this goal, it would mean a great deal to him and our entire family. Please click over to see more of the story (and photos of him with his girls).